Praying Mantis Help!

[K90]

Some background: I have had 3 baby praying mantids for close to 2 weeks, my bf found them in a house he was remodeling. They are about 1in long. They are in jars 6in tall and 4 in wide on each side, with mesh attached to one of the walls so they can climb to the mesh lid, as well as a big leaf from one of my plants that's shaped kind of like an umbrella and a small stick that leads to the mesh wall.
We've been feeding them flightless fruit flies and they've been eating well. Misting their enclosure once a day.

So yesterday one of the mantids did not eat and today we noticed his shell hanging from the mesh lid. We found him hanging under a leaf, looking bright and green. He had molted, and looked fine as far as we could tell. Later this afternoon we checked on him and he was laying on his side on the ground of the tank looking almost dead. We gently turned him right side up and he barely moved. He doesn't appear injured in any way but looks like he's going to die Any ideas on what could be going on?? Is it common for things to go wrong with a molt? He looked totally fine at 8 am, the leaf he was hanging on was less than an inch off the ground so I doubt he fell..

 

[cold blood]

Mantids need lots of space when molting...always go bigger on housing.

Assuming that it had adequate space, fruit flies are terrible nutritionally, and feeding them too often....well it can cause molting issues and curling legs in many inverts.

 

[K90]

What is more appropriate food for mantis nymphs? Pretty much everywhere I looked said fruit flies. We have been feeding them 2-3 flies about 5 days a week, is that too much?
Thank you for the response.

 

[BenLeeKing]

This is very weird, the way you described it sounds like it has fallen after fully molting and got injured that way? I've never experienced such a thing before. Try leaving it alone for a few more days to see if it is ok.
2-3 fruit flies seems like not quite enough for a 1 inch mantis. You can tell how well fed a mantis is by how plump its abdomen looks. if it's flat then it needs a meal, if it's thick and rounded then it is full. Over eating is not really going to be an issue (most of the time), if they are full they will drop the extra food, but if it is over stuffed is runs the risk of the food decomposing before it is able to digest it resulting in a sick mantis.
Feeding fruit flies won't bee too big of an issue, though they don't have as good nutrition and so you mantis will grow slower, but to a 1 inch mantis you'll need a lot of fruit flies. I suggest switching over to house flies to save the hassle of needing to dump in a bunch of fruit flies.

 

[K90]

Thank you. Unfortunately he died After he was dead I pulled him out to examine him and he did not have any visible deformities or any apparent cause of death. I guess that's nature sometimes. His molted shell was completely intact as well; it seems as if he easily molted and then something just went wrong. It's kind of worse not knowing I'm worried for my other two.
For feeding, we gently coax them out of their habit and into a smaller container so there aren't fruit flies potentially escaping their habitat which has a mesh lid and we can ensure they eat (and also watch them cause it's cool lol). We have several thriving fruit fly cultures so we can definitely increase their intake. How many on average would you recommend for a 1 in long mantis? Or just feed them til they stop eating? Is there somewhere you can order house flies? My boyfriend tried to feed them a house fly the day we got them and they didn't attempt to hunt it at all. We will try again when they get a bit bigger.
Thanks for the response!

 

[BenLeeKing]

Thank you. Unfortunately he died After he was dead I pulled him out to examine him and he did not have any visible deformities or any apparent cause of death. I guess that's nature sometimes. His molted shell was completely intact as well; it seems as if he easily molted and then something just went wrong. It's kind of worse not knowing I'm worried for my other two.
For feeding, we gently coax them out of their habit and into a smaller container so there aren't fruit flies potentially escaping their habitat which has a mesh lid and we can ensure they eat (and also watch them cause it's cool lol). We have several thriving fruit fly cultures so we can definitely increase their intake. How many on average would you recommend for a 1 in long mantis? Or just feed them til they stop eating? Is there somewhere you can order house flies? My boyfriend tried to feed them a house fly the day we got them and they didn't attempt to hunt it at all. We will try again when they get a bit bigger.
Thanks for the response!

1 inch is an awkward size, but smaller houseflies can be sufficient, I suppose it also depends on the species. You can also try feeding them small sized crickets, or just 10 fruit flies.